1. SERV. I think, he is: but a greater foldier than he, you wot one. 2. SERV. Who? my master? 1. SERV. Nay, it's no matter for that. 2. SERV. Worth fix of him. 1. SERV. Nay, not fo neither; but I take him to be the greater foldier. 2. SERV. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. 1. SERV. Ay, and for an affault too. Re-enter third Servant. 3. SERV. O, flaves, I can tell you news; news, you rafcals. 1. 2. SERV. What, what, what? let's partake. 3. SERV. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemn'd man. 1. 2. SERV. Wherefore? wherefore? 3. SERV. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Marcius. 1. SERV. Why do you fay, thwack our general? 3. SERV. I do not fay, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him. 2. SERV. Come, we are fellows, and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him fay fo himself. 1. SERV. He was too hard for him directly, to fay the truth on't: before Corioli, he fcotch'd him and notch'd him like a carbonado. 2. SERV. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broil'd and eaten him too." he might have broil'd and eaten him too.] The old copy. reads-boil'd. The change was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 1. SERV. But, more of thy news? 3. SERV. Why, he is fo made on here within, as if he were fon and heir to Mars: fet at upper end o' the table: no question afk'd him by any of the ferators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a miftrefs of him; fanctifies himself with's hand, and turns up the white o'the eye to his difcourfe. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' the middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday: for the other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and fowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears: He will mow down all before him, and leave his paffage poll'd.2 8-fanctifies himself with's hand,] Alluding, improperly, to the act of croffing upon any ftrange event. JOHNSON. I rather imagine the meaning is, confiders the touch of his hand as holy; clafps it with the fame reverence as a lover would clafp the hand of his miftrefs. If there be any religious allufion, I should rather fuppofe it to be the impofition of the hand in confirmation. MALONE. Perhaps the allufion is (however out of place) to the degree of fanctity anciently supposed to be derived from touching the corporal relick of a faint or a martyr. STEEVENS. 9 He'll -fowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears:] That is, I fuppofe, drag him down by the ears into the dirt. Souiller, Fr. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon's fuppofition, though not his derivation, is just. Skinner fays the word is derived from fow, i. e. to take hold of a perfon by the ears, as a dog feizes one of these animals. So, Heywood, in a comedy called Love's Mistress, 1636: "Venus will fowle me by the ears for this." Perhaps Shakspeare's allufion is to Hercules dragging out Cerberus. STEEVENS. Whatever the etymology of fowle may be, it appears to have been a familiar word in the last century. Lord Strafford's correfpondent, Mr. Garrard, ufes it as Shakspeare does. Straff. Lett. Vol. II. p. 149. "A lieutenant foled him well by the ears, and 2. SERV. And he's as like to do't, as any man I ́ can imagine. 3. SERV. Do't? he will do't: For, look you, fir, he has as many friends as enemies: which friends, fir, (as it were,) durft not (look you, fir,) fhow themselves (as we term it,) his friends, whilft he's in directitude.3 1. SERV. Directitude! What's that? 3. SERV. But when they shall see, sir, his creft up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their drew him by the hair about the room." Lord Strafford himself ufes it in another fenfe, Vol. II. p. 138. "It is ever a hopeful throw, where the cafter foles his bowl well." In this paffage to fole feems to fignify what, I believe, is ufually called to ground a bowl. TYRWHITT. Cole in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders it, aurem fumma vi vellere. MALONE. To fowle is ftill in ufe for pulling, dragging, and lugging, in the Weft of England. S. W. 2 — his passage poll'd.] That is, bared, cleared. JOHNSON. To poll a perfon anciently meant to cut off his hair. So, in Dametas Madrigall in praife of his Daphnis, by J. Wooton, published in England's Helicon, quarto, 1600: "Like Nifus golden hair that Scilla pol'd." It likewife fignified to cut off the head. So, in the ancient metrical history of the battle of Floddon Field: "But now we will withstand his grace, "Or thousand heads fhall there be polled." STEEVENS. So, in Chrifl's Tears over Jerufalem, by Thomas Nafhe, 1594: "the winning love of neighbours round about, if haply their houfes fhould be environed, or any in them prove unruly, being pilled and poul'd too unconscionably."-Poul'd is the spelling of the old copy of Coriolanus alfo. MALONE. 3 whilft he's in directitude.] I suspect the author wrote:whilft he's in difcreditude; a made word, instead of difcredit. He intended, I fuppofe, to put an uncommon word into the mouth of this fervant, which had fome resemblance to fenfe: but could hardly have meant that he should talk abfolute nonfenfe. MALONE, 4 in blood,] See p. 14, n. 3. MALONE. burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him. 1. SERV. But when goes this forward? 3. SERV. To-morrow; to-day; prefently. You fhall have the drum ftruck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a parcel of their feaft, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips. 2. SERV. Why, then we fhall have a ftirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.' 1. SERV. Let me have war, fay I; it exceeds peace, as far as day does night; it's fpritely, waking, audible, and full of vent." Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull'd,' deaf, fleepy, infenfible; a getter of more baftard children, than wars a deftroyer of men.8 5 This peace is nothing, but to ruft &c] I believe a word or two have been loft. Shakspeare probably wrote: This peace is good for nothing but, &c. MALONE. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads—is worth nothing, &c. STEEVENS. full of vent.] Full of rumour, full of materials for dif courfe. JOHNSON. 6 7-mull'd,] i. e. foften'd and difpirited, as wine is when. burnt and fweeten'd. Lat. Mollitus. HANMER. 8 than wars a deftroyer of men.] i. e. than wars are a destroyer of men. Our author almost every where ufes wars in the plural. See the next speech. Mr. Pope, not attending to this, reads-than war's, &c. which all the fubfequent editors have adopted. Walking, the reading of the old copy in this fpeech, was rightly corrected by him. MALONE. I should have perfifted in adherence to the reading of Mr. Pope, had not a fimilar irregularity in fpeech occurred in All's well that ends well, Act II. fc. i. where the fecond Lord fays-“ O, 'tis brave wars!" as we have here-" wars may be faid to be a ravisher." 2. SERV. 'Tis fo: and as wars, in fome fort, may be faid to be a ravisher; fo it cannot be denied, but peace is a great maker of cuckolds. 1. SERV. Ay, and it makes men hate one another. 3. SERV. Reason; because they then lefs need one another. The wars, for my money. I hope to fee Romans as cheap as Volcians.-They are rifing, they are rifing. ALL. In, in, in, in. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Rome. A Publick Place. Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS. SIC. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him; His remedies are tame i' the prefent peace' Perhaps, however, in all these instances, the old blundering tranfcribers or printers, may have given us wars instead of war. STEEVENS. • His remedies are tame i' the prefent peace-] The old reading is, His remedies are tame, the prefent peace. I do not understand either line, but fancy it fhould be read thus: neither need we fear him; His remedies are ta'en, the prefent peace And quietness of the people, The meaning, fomewhat harshly expreffed, according to our author's cuftom, is this: We need not fear him, the proper remedies against him are taken, by reftoring peace and quietness. JOHNSON. I rather fuppofe the meaning of Sicinius to be this: His remedies are tame, i. c. ineffectual in times of peace like thefe. When the people were |
